Be careful what you wish for when it comes to regulation in a post-Brexit UK

October 4, 2016

Dan Jones, FT Advisor

If the country is, as seems increasingly likely, heading for a ‘hard Brexit’ – a more accurate description than the competing ‘clean Brexit’ terminology – you could have been forgiven for looking on the bright side at one point last week.

The 548 pages of the Financial Conduct Authority’s consultation paper on Mifid II, published on September 29, merely represented the third of its four papers on the subject.

This missive was by far the most important for advisers and wealth managers, but the scope (and paperwork) of the directive as a whole indicates the extent to which the EU regulation influences domestic financial services.

Whatever the content might prove to be, avoiding the legwork involved in the future Mifid IIIs, IVs and Vs must have looked enticing last Thursday.

And sentiments of this kind, prevalent well before the referendum campaigns got underway, can still be heard across the industry now. How much easier it might be when we’re finally able to throw off the yoke of European regulation for good. Read more